[Avodah] The Shape of the Tavah

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Fri Oct 12 08:20:24 PDT 2018


On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 07:36:37AM -0400, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: At 03:01 PM 10/11/2018, Micha Berger wrote:
: >RSRH's teivah is his own reconstruction. He could be wrong too.

: >Borne on the surface of the water means all the weight is above the water,
: >                                           .... It would be another neis
: >for Noach et al not to have capsized.
: 
: First of all,  the entire saving of Noach, his family, and the
: animals is a miracle.  It is not, IMO, something that would happen
: in the "natural" course of events.  Hence,  the ark could indeed
: have been shaped the way RSRH asserts and stayed afloat,  because
: HaShem kept it afloat.

Which I noted.

However, RSRH's observation that Noach built a teivah, not a boat,
didn't compell him to say that the box was atop the water, or that
the bottom was larger than the top. For that matter, the Torah describes
it like it was shaped like a brick -- just length, width and height, no
other details about apparence except the tzohar, if the tzohar was a
window.

: Also,  we know that the nature of the world was different before the
: flood than it is today. IIRC, there are midrashim that say that
: there were no seasons as we have today and that vegetation grew at a
: much faster rate. In short, climatic conditions were very different
: before the flood than after it.

: In light of this,  who says that the laws of physics before the
: flood were the same as they are today?

Saying the world had a different climate doesn't mean the laws of
nature changed. It could mean the earth changed. There is no reason
to believe science itself changed since; and in fact some reason
to believe it hadn't.

After all, "mikol melakhto asher bara E-lokim la'asos" was before
the first Shabbos. The notion that the universe changed in a new
fundamental way since isn't 100% in concert with that.

Although I realize "nishtaneh hateva" has numerous explanations, I
don't know if any require believing the laws themselves changed.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Someday I will do it." - is self-deceptive. 
micha at aishdas.org        "I want to do it." - is weak. 
http://www.aishdas.org   "I am doing it." - that is the right way.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                   - Reb Menachem Mendel of Kotzk


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